Radhe Forces Re-think On Big-Screen Premieres on OTT

Nothing succeeds like  success. Nothing fails like  failure  either.  The  abject rejection of Salman  Khan’s latest release Radhe  by  even his  staunchest fans has left  the  film trade,  specially the major OTT platforms,  shell-shocked. They are wondering if  there  is any wisdom to paying huge amounts of money to buy  out big-screen products  with A-list superstars when they invariably  prove to be  duds  on  the digital domain.

An executive from a   leading  OTT platform told this  writer there maybe  a  “blanket ban” on all big-screen premiers on the streaming platforms  after  Radhe.

“It’s not  only Radhe  which  has been badly  received  on the digital  platform. Prior to that other made-for-cinema  products  like Akshay Kumar’s Laxmii,  Varun Dhawan’s Coolie No 1 and that Ishan Khattar-Ananya Pandey film(Kaali Peeli) which were all meant foir cinemas, were rejected  on  OTT.  Maybe it’s time now to see the digital platform as a separate  entity with different requirements from the  big-screen products. Although  Dhamaka  has  a big  A-list star Kartik Aryan in the lead,  it has been specially designed for  the digital  space and  not dragged down from the  big screen to small. So that will work,” the  digital  executive  opines.

The  next  big-screen project being negotiated  for an OTT release  is  the Akshay Kumar-Rohit Shetty  collaborative venture Sooryavanshi which may have  to be sold at a  much  lower price than expected after the cold response  to Radhe.